40-year-old Tanki Rawat from Dangisharan Rural Municipality-3 in Dang district has been arrested on a charge of murdering her 69-year-old mother-in-law Khopi Rawat on witchcraft charge. Prakash Sapkota, deputy superintendent of police(DSP) said the perpetrator, who has been ill for a long time, murdered the elderly after local shamans told her that the mother-in-law made her fall ill by practising witchcraft and black magic. According to the Area Police Office in Tulsipur, Rawat took her mother-in-law to Salyan district on August 18 on the pretext of exorcising evil. She thrashed the victim to death with a baton at a forest in Kapurkot Rural Municipality-5 in Salyan on August 21. The perpetrator went out of contact after the incident, said police. Police initiated an investigation after the Rawat family lodged a complaint on Tuesday stating that Tanki and Khopi Rawat went out of contact since August 19. During the search, the security personnel recovered Khopi’s body in Shivamandir Community Forest in Kapurkot-2 on Friday. On Saturday, a police team led by Inspector Rajan Rayamajhi detained Tanki from Krishnanagar of Kapilvastu where she was hiding after committing the crime. In a press meet in Tulsipur on Saturday, DSP Sapkota said the accused admitted of planning to kill her mother-in-law after she came to the conclusion that she could not be physically well unless Khopi was alive.